In an organized and well supported paragraph, address each of the following questions. As always, use evidence from the text to support your point.
What is the power of learning in "Damn White Girl" by Karla Garcia and "Learning to Read" by Malcolm X? How is learning different from education?
You are also responsible for bringing in a detailed brainstorm of your final exam topic. This should include the personal experience you will write about as well as the sociological issue it represents. Think about the research sources you will use to support the sociological aspect of your paper.
Joanna Dimas
ReplyDeleteLearning is usually to gain more knowledge; however, for many people of color, it is a gateway to a higher education. In Karla Garcia’s Damn White Girl, the idea of learning and becoming intelligent is considered “white”. Garcia explains, “Latinos struggle through challenges quite different…and as a result, many of reign to accept lower level of academic achievement”. Learning is the access to gaining power and having a voice that is brought from family, friends, and a community. Similar to Garcia, Malcolm X learns reading and writing in prison. Learning allowed him to have discipline he would never have had, and a hunger for knowledge. The purpose of learning in his case was to grasp the history of his people and learn how much they struggled in America and the motherland. Malcolm states, “I never will forget how shocked I was when I began reading about slavery’s total horror”(286). Learning was another world for Malcolm and not only did he gain knowledge, but the truth about what his identity was. He was a black man who was raised in a racist country, and from ancestry of slavery in Africa. The concept of learning for most allows one to explore new ideas, stories, and gain opinions and beliefs. Education is the title that will allow one to go to college and become successful. Education does teach students several subjects, but are limited to teaching certain things, therefore limiting the knowledge of learning for students. Learning is not always about academics, but also learning the ways of life. Understanding wrong from right and learning to be respectful. Both education and learning are necessities in life, but being able to learn is the key to a greater education and a greater life.
Learning is the acquisition of knowledge. Malcom X talks about how through learning he was enlightened. Before learning, Malcom X was just another black man trapped in the cycle of oppression. Through learning, Malcom X had a revelation, learning about the oppression of the white man. This revelation ultimately led him to become an influential activist speaking about civil rights issues. Had Malcom X never taught himself to write,, he would have died an ignorant man, without any proud achievements to look back on. In “Damn White Girl” the power of learning could potentially break stereotypes. Since Latinos face many struggles they “resign to accept a lower level of academic achievement” (Karla 1). Because Latinos are often less educated than their White counterparts they unfortunately accept this anti-intellectual mindset. Without education, Latino’s are not able to understand and rise above the issues they face and therefore continue to struggle. Learning gives people the power to change their societies, because they are able to understand the history of the problems that affect them. Education is different from learning, because learning is not always academic. Learning includes education but it also entails things such as morality and respect.
ReplyDeleteIn the essay “Damn White Girl” by Karla Garcia, and “Learning How to Read” by Malcolm X, both have a very different way of learning. Malcolm is in prison, doesn’t know how to write or read but he wants to learn so he gets a dictionary. He writes word my word until the next morning he was “Immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I’d written words that I never knew were in the world,” (Malcolm 282).Malcolm really started to enjoy reading, writing, and learning such fascinating words to him. He not once cared that he was in prison. He loved what he was doing and kept on doing it. He was actually fortunate that he was in prison because “prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college,” (Malcolm 290). He didn’t go to any fancy private school but became an intellectual man by his perseverance and ability to work with his surroundings. With Karla, she learned to break the cycle that only caucasians could go to college and succeed. Coming from a low-income housing, and not well-educated parents, she managed to “do my homework, study for tests, and strive for A’s,” (Garcia 1). And even if she was called “white” just for trying hard in school, she was proud. She was proud that she graduated and was going to college “just like my Caucasian friends and break the cycle,” (Garcia 2). Learning is different from education because learning is a choice of a person like in Malcolm’s case, he learned, he didn’t have an education to teach him stuff. He learned in his own ways.
ReplyDeleteIn Learning How to read" by Malcom X,the reader can see how powerful learning how to read and write can be. After struggling how to be more articulate and how to write in a legible way, X applied these things to real life situations like reading books or writing letters. X uses books as a way to escape the hardships of jail. He becomes an avid member of the prison debates and checks out more books than you are allowed to check out. He even breaks the curfew and stays up until four A.M. reading books. The prison tries to control how educated to inmates are by establishing curfews and limiting the types of books the inmates can read to broad and general books. This is why learning is different than having an education. It takes effort to learn something because it is something that is new to you. Education is already knowing something but applying it to situations. In Karla's situation she used education and learning as a way to break the cycle of poverty. She saw that her fellow chicanos and chicanas that fell behind. Instead of seeing this as another hurdle she has to jump over, she used this as motivation to educate herself and reach a higher learning.
ReplyDeleteLearning is the gateway to knowledge. The more one learns, the more knowledge one has. However even with a great thing, such as knowledge, people struggle. In Karla Garcia's essay "Dam White Girl", Karla struggles with society perceiving someone who is interested in academics as "white". For example, Karla states,"...I struggled to comprehend her comment and to gain insight on the skewed perspective that sees people interested in academics as white"(paragraph 2). On the other hand Malcolm X struggles with not being able to learn. However, Malcolm regains the lost time in prison, spending every moment studying the dictionary. For instance, Malcolm X writes,"I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary-to study, to learn some words"(Malcolm 282). This all proves that eventhough knowledge is a valuable thing, it can lead to struggles.
ReplyDeleteIn essays “Damn white girl” by Karla Garcia and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, both convey a power of learning in two separate techniques. In Karla’s essay, the power of learning is delivered for the reason why she’s doing so well in school and being told “Damn white girl” by another Latina even though she’s is brown skinned. In her position, acquiring knowledge is the power of becoming successful, going beyond their parent’s knowledge and expectations, having a higher education, and breaking the stereo type for Latinos misconduct. For example, Karla demonstrates how Latinos struggle with academic achievement more than Caucasians, “Many of us resign to accept a lower level of academic achievement” (Karla 1). Her reasoning of learning with interest and putting active effort into her work imply that she wants to set her life in a greater position and not have a low-wage job like her parents. In addition to breaking the Latino stereotype for being uneducated, Karla refers how there’s more percentages for the Latino drop outs and the low percentage of Latinos not meeting their a-g requirements. The power of learning according to Karla, is the power one gains and the knowledge that will make one a greater person successfully. On the other hand, Malcolm X doesn’t learn to seek for success and to attend college but for curiosity and hunger that he has for knowledge. Malcolm X is living a negative life before he gets in prison and starts reading the dictionary and realizing how many words there are in this world. He doesn’t know how to write or handle any academic work. Once he learns how to read, he starts learning the history of his race and he is incredibly shocked about all the cruelty behind his history that he never once heard about. Malcolm X becomes a very intelligent man and people portray him as an educated man. He writes, “This impression is due entirely due to my prison studies” (X 283). The power of learning in Malcolm X’s essay is the knowledge that he was never exposed to when he was younger, until he went to prison and realized how much history, words, the what the world contained, and views the oppressive cycle that his race is continually stuck in. Once he began this journey of knowledge he wanted to gain more and more knowledge, he explains his attendance in prison was reading most of the time then sleeping. He writes, “As soon as the guard passes, I got back out of bed onto the floor area of that light-glow, where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes” (X 185). Malcolm X, values books and learns the civilization between china and the British and Black slave. The Negro history is an example of the way it opens his eyes and gives him more interest. Learning is different from education because learning doesn’t have to be processed by education and learning is a great value for life as well as education. For instance respect is a huge way to show learning and from Malcolm’s intelligence, he learned by himself. Malcolm X and Karla Garcia’s convey two ways of learning with power.
ReplyDeleteIn "Leaning to Read" by Malcolm X and in "Damn White Girl" by Karla Garcia they both have two different ways of achieving their goal. Karla wants to "break the cycle,"(Garcia 2) of only white people going on to college and the Latinos either dropping out or not going to a college. "I do my homework, study for tests, and strive for A's,"(Garcia 1). Malcolm X has a different way of learning because he is in jail and that his way of leaning is using a dictionary. "I saw that the best thing I could do was to get hold of a dictionary-to study, to learn some words,"(Malcolm 2). He starts to read the dictionary and starts to like learning how to read and write. He is frustrated that he does not know how to express his words in writing. Karla wants Latinos to break the cycle and to go to college even though that she grew up in low-income housing and with parents that no little English. She is an example for all the Latinos that want to go to college. "I soon discovered the root of this misconception was the invisible barrier that stands between race and academic achievement."(Garcia 1). In Jin's class today we talked about invisibility and who it affects. The only people that see the invisibility are the ones ho are the minority in that society. To get to knowledge you first have to learn. That is what both Karla and Malcolm X did. This is proof that you first have to struggle to thrive at the end. They start out with nothing and end up with something that is better than money which is a lot of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteLearning is obtained through knowledge. Malcom X speaks of his development of learning from reading an abundant amount of books throughout his imprisonment. Before learning, as a young student in middle school, Malcom X was trapped in the cycle of oppression. He was taught white studies and his “Negro” culture was not seen as an academic credential. In prison, he achieved his goal of being an intellectual man by reading daily and teaching himself vocabulary and grammar skills. Afterwards he began writing and became an activist battling against the white man and their devilish ways of manipulating people of color. His curiosity of learning led to his successes and gave him power to change society. In “Damn White Girl,” by Karla Garcia, Karla demonstrates how learning is powerful enough to break racial chains within education. For instance, statistics show that whites do better in school. A small portion of the Latino students do well in school and enter college. This small percentage of Latinos, strive to make a change and break stereotypes. That is a reason why “it is surprising when a Latina person does well,” because it is uncommon for Latinos to overcome their personal obstacles that is stopping them from getting an education (Garcia 2) Although it can be academic, learning is different from education because learning can be obtained outside the classroom and can be things such as curiosity and self-motivation.
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ReplyDeleteYes, I know, I need some sleep... =_=
ReplyDeleteIn both pieces, learning is a powerful part in gaining a broader understanding of the world around one as well as presenting new doors for one to kick open.
In Malcolm X's excerpt, he has to start from the bottom up in prison. He learns how to read and write by himself by copying down the pages of a dictionary word for word. By doing these mundane yet important tasks, he is able to learn "of people and places and events from history" (X 283). Just through learning how to read and write, he is able to access an even higher level of learning ability with the "new world that opened" (X 283). He then uses his newly learned abilities to further explore the history of black people as well as learn about how white people have oppressed blacks in slavery as well as modern society. These are ideas and histories that were not taught through an education in school; he had to learn of them of his own accord.
In Garcia's essay, only from her learning is she able to reason why Vanessa would call her a damn white girl. She learns that there is an "invisible barrier that stands between race and academic achievement" (Garcia 1). Due to many challenges that are evident within the Latino population that aren't seen in the white community, many Latinos deem it as acceptable to perform on a lower level than those who are white. Thus, ethnic people end up assuming that when one steps past that invisible barrier and performs on a high academic level that it is "acting white," which ties in with the idea of oppositional culture. In Garcia's essay, LEARNING that one's EDUCATION is important for a brighter future is a powerful message, along with the point that all people of all ethnic backgrounds should be able to strive for a higher education without being perceived as a "damn white girl" or "damn white boy."
The difference between learning and education is the roles that are portrayed in both. Education is when one is taught the ideas and concepts from another. Learning, on the other hand, involves only the individual. Learning is when one discovers new ideas or concepts on one's own. Rather, it is the WILL of one to take in ideas and concepts. For example, Malcolm X learned how to read and write on his own because he did not receive an education on that topic beforehand. He had the will to learn. Even if one has the opportunity to receive an education, one also needs to have the resolve to learn what the educator is trying to teach. Although they are separate things, learning and education go hand in hand, and both are powerful in their own ways.
Both Malcolm X and Karla Garcia serve as an example that one is responsible for his or her own eduacation. One can also see that through an education one can hold a position of power and make a difference in other peoples lives. In order to function in this society and be treated with respect, one must demonstate knowledge or an education. By learning and gaining an education, both Karla and Malcom have used their knowledge to understand racism and work hard to overcome it. Through learning about race and cultural barriers Karla and Malclom X show pride in their ethnicity and because of their learnt selves they can help make a difference. Malcolm X was fully aware of his verbal agility, and he observes that he was “the most articulate hustler out there [on the streets],” (Malcom). Similarly, without her strong education Karla would not be able to stand up for herself, and try to break the circle of poverty. Because she is educated she can help break the opression. Education, although it may seem like a right, serves more similar to a privilage because one's education will differ depending on where he or she goes to school or the neighborhood that they live in. However, learning is a responsibility and is also a choice. How good someone's education is can depend on a variety of things but how well someone learns,as demonststrated by Karla and Malcolm X is a reflection of one's motivation to succeed in life.
ReplyDeleteKarla demonstrates the power of learning in her essay "Damn White Girl", about the struggles she's encountered in her quest for education, including a Latina calling her a "Damn White Girl". She explains how her society has constructed that academic achievement possible only for whites and that Latinos must settle for less. That's something believed even among Latinas; the girl calling her white is of the same race! Karla's hard work and goal of education is not only powerful because it's breaking a cycle, but because its breaking a cycle of lower education among Latinos.
ReplyDeleteMalcom X does a similar thing in "Learning to Read". Malcom was extremely inarticulate and couldn't even speak for himself without street slang. During his imprisonment, he spent that time reading almost everything. He prefered to learn, and he couldn't without the help of his prison library. "Months passed without me even thinking I was imprisoned". Learning can be done no matter who you are. He is showing that one can learn without a schooled education. That no matter where you are or how much money you have. knowledge will always be accessible.
Possessing knowledge has always proven itself to be one of the most useful tools ever. From the two readings by Malcolm X and Karla Garcia, it is seen that learning and knowledge come hand in hand in allowing one to excel past the boundaries set by the society and achieve greater things in life. However, it can only be achieved if one is able to break out of the endless cycle of poverty that has brought down many people of color to this day. In Karla Garcia’s “Damn White Girl,” she explains how she was judged as a “white washed” Latina because education is depicted as “white.” Whites are not the only ones who have access to greater knowledge because there is no price to learning. Anyone is able to use books and take advantage of the great or minimal education one may have. Malcolm X became frustrated due to the fact that he could not convey what he felt through words like how he did through his speech, so he used a prison’s library to his advantage in order to become more literate. It is how these two have an ambition to become something more than what they already are that promotes there learning process. Every night, Malcolm X’s reading would be interrupted because of how prisons turn off there lights during certain hours, but that never stopped him, he sit on the “floor where he could continue reading in that glow [of light that transmitted into his room]” (X). Similarly, Karla’s motivation for pursuing an education came about how she would be able to come about new opportunities. With the academic form of learning presented from Malcolm and Karla, there are also other types of learning that does not promote a higher education. For example, learning how to navigate through a city or being able to use a bus efficiently are two of many examples that demonstrate a need for knowledge. In itself academic learning does provide gateways to brighter futures. As seen from the two readings, both Malcolm and Karla show that they are indeed more than the average stereotyped colored person. They are people of color that surpassed “the invisible barrier” (Garcia 1) and continued or (in Karla’s case) continually excelled towards greatness.
ReplyDeleteIn the essay Damn White Girl, by Karla Garcia and Learning to Read, by Malcolm X, both the authors use the power of learning as a turning point. In Damn White Girl, the reader is first introduced to the power of learning after the author was put down for being good student, “I soon discovered that the root of misconception was the invisible barrier that stands between race and academic achievement” (Garcia 1).This quote is important to the story because it is when the narrator has her turning point after being called a “white girl.” The narrator of the story suddenly realizes the sad truth is that if you are successful in school, your acting white because many Latinos are resigned to accept lower level of academic achievement. The power of learning the reason of misconception is very important because this allowed the author to have her turning point and to keep the story going with something she is passionate about. In Learning to Read, we are introduced to the power of learning after the author explains that he is fed up with his message not getting through. Eventually after the narrator takes a step forward into learning, he faced a similar problem as Karla Garcia did in her story. For instance, in Learning to Read, after the author began his reading he states, “As you can imagine, especially in a prison where there was heavy emphasis on rehabilitation, an inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books” (X 282). This quote is very important to the story because he gives an example of how he faced obstacles for learning. Being smiled upon in a prison is not something people want to be given because a prison is suppose to be intense, brutal, and being smiled upon can show weakness in a prison. Another important factor of this quote is that it allows the author to turn this obstacle as something positive. For example, in the next few sentences the author says, “I read more in my room than in the library itself. An inmate who was known to read a lot could check out more than the permitted maximum number of books”(X 282). This is an example of the author having another turning point because he states the he is given more books because he has a reputation of reading a lot. Even though he has a reputation of reading a lot which makes him seem weak to the prisoners he is still looking on the bright side of how he is able to take out more books. In both of these stories we can see how learning is different from education. The main difference between education and learning is that education is receiving or giving systematic instruction, whereas learning is gaining knowledge through experience, practice, or study. In Damn White Girl, learning is different from education because in school education they don’t teach you about how there is a racial equity in today’s society. The only way to actually learn that there is a racial equity in today’s society is to actually have experienced it. Overall, the power of learning is very important in both of these stories because it brought out something to rise above. Malcolm X learned how to read through practicing and reading a dictionary, and Karla Garcia learned the reason for the creation of a racial equity through her experience of being called a “white girl.” The power of learning is very important because this is what helped the authors realize what must be done to make a difference.
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